Going Through the Motions
by CeeBoo
Summary: All her life, Annie Black has felt like she was just going through the motions of living. Go to school, get good grades, don't get into trouble, repeat. But when her family moves and she finds both herself and her brother, Seth, attending Degrassi, life starts to look up for them. Until she falls hard for bad boy Zig and Seth starts crushing on Tristan. Zig/OC, Tristan/OC.


**Going Through the Motions**

**Chapter One**

"Okay, Okay," Annie murmured softly, facing her reflection in the bathroom mirror, running slender hands through her short, ginger hair, "New school, new people, new teachers… Nothing to be worried about," she attempted to convince herself. But her hands were shaking slightly with anticipation and nervousness. She chewed her lower lip—a horrible habit she couldn't break—and smoothed down her red plaid skirt.

Oh, who was she kidding?

Annie is social awkward, introverted, and her whole wardrobe consists of black clothing, band shirts, and other gothic wear. She knew that it was going to be hard to make new friends, since she was a sophomore and everyone was probably arranged into their own cliques… Plus she never had any friends to begin with.

She lifted her eyes and gazed at her reflection. Her hair was thick on top, and thinner as it reached her shoulders. Getting it layered was a really good decision on her mother's part. Her nose, small and petite like her mother's, high cheekbones, full lips, and hazel irises under thick eyelashes… She supposed her face was a blessing because the rest of her was anything but feminine. She was as thin as a rail and had little to none curves. She was flat both on her chest and her ass, she had long legs, despite her shortness, she could only hope that she got more curves as she grew older.

She bent over to tie her combat boots shoelaces, before she straightened up and ran her hands down the front of her black band shirt. She was about to start working on her make up when there was a sudden pounding at her door, it made her nearly jump out her skin.

"Annie! You've been in there for the whole freaking morning! There are other people in this house you know!"

Annie rolled her eyes and groaned, snatching up her make up bag and turning off her straightener. She opened the door and glared in annoyance at her older brother, Seth.

"Seth, if you haven't noticed, I'm a girl and us girls tend to need extra time in the bathroom to look good!"

Seth was lucky; he inherited dad's good looks and charming personality. He was way taller than her, despite him being only sixteen, and he was muscular. Not an ounce of fat on him. His hair was dark brown, almost black, and straight as sticks, to his shoulders. Right now it was a tangly mess, but once he combed it out, it would look luxurious and would frame his face nicely. His facial features were nicely structured—he looked like a greek god or royalty of some sort. The only thing they had in common were their eyes and long eyelashes.

But it quite obvious that Seth was more attractive of the two. At their last school, Seth was beating off the fangirls with sticks.

Too bad he wasn't—and never will be—into girls.

Annie wished she had guys to beat off with sticks…

"Sis, you aren't going to get any prettier hogging the bathroom all morning," the annoyed male snapped at her, pushing her out the way and marching into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Annie couldn't come up with a good enough comeback so she merely pouted and stormed into her room. She turned on some scream music and got started on her make-up, standing in front of her vanity.

Once she was done, she looked much better. She went with simple brown eye shadow, black eyeliner, mascara (only a little) and red lipstick. She let out a relieved sigh and closed her lipstick, putting it into her make-up bag and then putting that into her messenger bag.

She grabbed said messenger bag and walked out her room, slinging it over her shoulder on her way down the stairs and into the kitchen. The house they owned was pretty big, four bedrooms and three bathrooms—which is why she didn't understand why Seth didn't use the other ones earlier this morning—she had to say she liked all the space. She still had to get used to it, but it was home. Her mother was a lawyer and a real estate agent, and her father was a persecutor.

They weren't rich, but they weren't struggling financially at all.

She walked into the spacious kitchen and opened one of the cabinets. She found the last granola bar and grabbed it, walking to the refrigerator and taking out a bottle of water. She twisted the cap off and took a long sip before she opened her granola bar.

Ten minutes later, her brother came down the stairs as well. His hair was brushed and perfect looking, as expected. He wore a black t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a black leather jacket. He makes looking good seem completely effortless, damn him…

He grabbed an apple and bit into it, before making his way to the fridge and pulling out a water bottle as well.

"You're nervous," he stated casually and leaned against the counter.

Annie ate the last of her granola bar, "Is it that obvious?"

He nodded, "Your hands are shaking," he pointed out, chuckling as she attempted to hide them behind her back, "There's no need to be so worried; you'll make plenty of friends."

Annie resisted the urge to bite her lower lip, lest she mess up her lipstick, "You think so?"

Seth shrugged, "Sure, I mean, you're pretty decent looking, despite having the body of a twelve year old boy."

Color rose to Annie's cheeks, "If you keep pointing that out, I'll sneak into your room one night and push a pillow on your face until you stop kicking."

Seth mock winced, "That's pretty dark stuff," he stated, a smirk appearing on his lips as he took another bite out his apple, "You won't make any friends with that kind of talk."

"Ass."

"Bitch."

They looked at each other and started chuckling lightly.

"C'mon," he grabbed his back pack, "Let's get to school."

* * *

Their school wasn't that far from their house, only a few blocks. Seth couldn't exactly drive them because he only had a permit, with no parent or adult in the car, he wasn't allowed. And their parents were sticklers about rules and regulations, obviously.

Upon entering, they found eyes on him.

Seth seemed to revel in the attention while Annie's cheeks burned a bright red and she ducked her head. She knew that the girls were all staring at Seth, and as for the guys, they looked like they were sizing them both up. She grabbed Seth's elbow and dragged him away from the crowd of on lookers, and into the office to get their schedules for the day.

She let go of him once they were near, "You always draw so much damn attention to yourself," she grumbled and crossed her thin arms over her chest.

Seth smirked, "Don't hate me 'cause I'm better looking than you."

Annie attempted to stomp on his foot but he evaded her easily and ducked into the office. Annie let out a sigh and followed him.

Once they got their schedules, Seth insisted on walking her to her first class. Annie could rarely say no to him, so she agreed and let him walk her.

Once they were there, Annie entered the classroom. There were little to none students in their seats, which means that the bell hasn't rung yet. She let out sigh of slight relief before she chose a random seat in the back corner and sat down, leaning her elbows on the cool, wooden surface of the desk.

'_Let's get this day over with…'_ she thought to herself.

* * *

Once he made sure Annie got to her class okay—because god knows how easily lost she gets, he made his way down the hall and towards his own class. Girls openly stared at him on the way, mostly freshmen or sophomores, but he was keeping his eye out for any cute guys he might catch sight of.

Because he was looking around so much, he wasn't really paying attention to what was in front of him. And because of that, he bumped into someone, causing the notebook and binder in his hand to fall down and clatter to the ground.

"I'm sorry," he apologized and looked up to find himself facing a really cute, blond guy, "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

The boy's mouth opened and closed, much like a fish out of water, "U—Um, n—no it was my fault."

Next to him, there was a tall, skinny dude with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Holding his hand was a pretty little blond with high cheekbones and wearing glasses. She seemed to be trying to play it cool, but she wasn't doing a very good job at hiding her amused grin as she watched her friend.

Seth's gaydar went blip.

Seth bent over and picked up his books, before picking up the boy's other fallen books and handing it to him, "See you around," he gave his usual charming smile before he continued walking, brushing past the cute guy and heading towards where his classroom was.

'_He's pretty cute,'_ Seth was thinking to himself as he entered his classroom, _'Even though he looks, like, a year younger than me. Though I suppose that that doesn't really matter.'_

"Oh my god, that was the hottest guy I've ever seen," Tristan Milligan was saying to his friends as they walked into their first class, he was still swooning over the guy that bumped into him a few seconds earlier, "He's like, my dream guy."

Maya laughed, "Yeah, but, what're the likeliness that he's gay?"

Tristan pouted, "Don't rain on my parade, Maya."

"I think the likeliness is pretty high," Miles spoke up as he leaned against a random desk. At the 'are you crazy?' looks he got from the two, he continued, "Oh come on, you saw the way he smiled at you. That smile screamed gay."

Tristan sighed dreamily, "I don't even know his name, all I know is that I'm in love!"

Maya and Miles exchanged worried looks. They didn't want Tristan to fall too hard for a guy that might turn out to be not gay, or not interested.

They guessed that they'll just have to wait and see what happens.

* * *

A/N: Next will be the rest of what happened in the episode. This obviously takes plave after the trip to france. R&R please!


End file.
